Abstract: Logistics outsourcing is a growing trend and measuring its performance, a challenge. It must be consistent with the objectives set for logistics outsourcing, but we have found no objective-based performance measurement system. We have conducted a comprehensive review of the specialist literature to cover this gap, which has led us to identify and define these objectives. The outcome is that we have obtained a list of the most relevant objectives and their descriptions. This will enable us to analyse in a future study whether the indicators used for measuring logistics outsourcing performance are consistent with the objectives pursued with the outsourcing. If this is not the case, a proposal will be made for a set of financial and operational indicators to measure performance in logistics outsourcing that take the goals being pursued into account.
Abstract: Wavelet transform or wavelet analysis is a recently
developed mathematical tool in applied mathematics. In numerical
analysis, wavelets also serve as a Galerkin basis to solve partial
differential equations. Haar transform or Haar wavelet transform has
been used as a simplest and earliest example for orthonormal wavelet
transform. Since its popularity in wavelet analysis, there are several
definitions and various generalizations or algorithms for calculating
Haar transform. Fast Haar transform, FHT, is one of the algorithms
which can reduce the tedious calculation works in Haar transform. In
this paper, we present a modified fast and exact algorithm for FHT,
namely Modified Fast Haar Transform, MFHT. The algorithm or
procedure proposed allows certain calculation in the process
decomposition be ignored without affecting the results.
Abstract: A active inductor in CMOS techonology with a supply voltage of 1.8V is presented. The value of the inductance L can be in the range from 0.12nH to 0.25nH in high frequency(HF). The proposed active inductor is designed in TSMC 0.18-um CMOS technology. The power dissipation of this inductor can retain constant at all operating frequency bands and consume around 20mW from 1.8V power supply. Inductors designed by integrated circuit occupy much smaller area, for this reason,attracted researchers attention for more than decade. In this design we used Advanced Designed System (ADS) for simulating cicuit.
Abstract: PARADIGMA (PARticipative Approach to DIsease
Global Management) is a pilot project which aims to develop and
demonstrate an Internet based reference framework to share scientific
resources and findings in the treatment of major diseases.
PARADIGMA defines and disseminates a common methodology and
optimised protocols (Clinical Pathways) to support service functions
directed to patients and individuals on matters like prevention, posthospitalisation
support and awareness. PARADIGMA will provide a
platform of information services - user oriented and optimised
against social, cultural and technological constraints - supporting the
Health Care Global System of the Euro-Mediterranean Community
in a continuous improvement process.
Abstract: Software effort estimation is the process of predicting
the most realistic use of effort required to develop or maintain
software based on incomplete, uncertain and/or noisy input. Effort
estimates may be used as input to project plans, iteration plans,
budgets. There are various models like Halstead, Walston-Felix,
Bailey-Basili, Doty and GA Based models which have already used
to estimate the software effort for projects. In this study Statistical
Models, Fuzzy-GA and Neuro-Fuzzy (NF) Inference Systems are
experimented to estimate the software effort for projects. The
performances of the developed models were tested on NASA
software project datasets and results are compared with the Halstead,
Walston-Felix, Bailey-Basili, Doty and Genetic Algorithm Based
models mentioned in the literature. The result shows that the NF
Model has the lowest MMRE and RMSE values. The NF Model
shows the best results as compared with the Fuzzy-GA based hybrid
Inference System and other existing Models that are being used for
the Effort Prediction with lowest MMRE and RMSE values.
Abstract: The objective of this study was to improve our
understanding of vulnerability and environmental change; it's causes
basically show the intensity, its distribution and human-environment
effect on the ecosystem in the Apodi Valley Region, This paper is
identify, assess and classify vulnerability and environmental change
in the Apodi valley region using a combined approach of landscape
pattern and ecosystem sensitivity. Models were developed using the
following five thematic layers: Geology, geomorphology, soil,
vegetation and land use/cover, by means of a Geographical
Information Systems (GIS)-based on hydro-geophysical parameters.
In spite of the data problems and shortcomings, using ESRI-s ArcGIS
9.3 program, the vulnerability score, to classify, weight and combine
a number of 15 separate land cover classes to create a single indicator
provides a reliable measure of differences (6 classes) among regions
and communities that are exposed to similar ranges of hazards.
Indeed, the ongoing and active development of vulnerability
concepts and methods have already produced some tools to help
overcome common issues, such as acting in a context of high
uncertainties, taking into account the dynamics and spatial scale of
asocial-ecological system, or gathering viewpoints from different
sciences to combine human and impact-based approaches. Based on
this assessment, this paper proposes concrete perspectives and
possibilities to benefit from existing commonalities in the
construction and application of assessment tools.
Abstract: Indoor air distribution has great impact on people-s thermal sensation. Therefore, how to remove the indoor excess heat becomes an important issue to create a thermally comfortable indoor environment. To expel the extra indoor heat effectively, this paper used a dynamic CFD approach to study the effect of an air-supply guide vane swinging periodically on the indoor air distribution within a model room. The numerical results revealed that the indoor heat transfer performance caused by the swing guide vane had close relation with the number of vortices developing under the inlet cold jet. At larger swing amplitude, two smaller vortices continued to shed outward under the cold jet and remove the indoor heat load more effectively. As a result, it can be found that the average Nusselt number on the floor increased with the increase of the swing amplitude of the guide vane.
Abstract: In Algeria, liberalization reforms undertaken since the 1990s have resulted in negative effects on the development and management of irrigation schemes, as well as on the conditions of farmers. Reforms have been undertaken to improve the performance of irrigation schemes, such as the national plan of agricultural development (PNDA) in 2000 and the water pricing policy of 2005. However, after implementation of these policies, questions have arisen with regard to irrigation performance and its suitability for agricultural development. Hence, the aim of this paper is to provide insight into the profitability of irrigation during the transition period under current irrigation agricultural policies in Algeria. By using the method of farm crop budget analysis in the East Mitidja irrigation scheme, the returns from using surface water resources based on farm typology were found to vary among crops and farmers- groups within the scheme. Irrigation under the current situation is profitable for all farmers, including both those who benefit from subsidies and those who do not. However, the returns to water were found to be very sensitive to crop price fluctuations, particularly for non-subsidized groups and less so for those whose farming is based on orchards. Moreover, the socio-economic environment of the farmers contributed to less significant impacts of the PNDA policy. In fact, the limiting factor is not only the water, but also the lack of land ownership title. Market access constraints led to less agricultural investment and therefore to low intensification and low water productivity. It is financially feasible to recover the annual O&M costs in the irrigation scheme. By comparing the irrigation water price, returns to water, and O&M costs of water delivery, it is clear that irrigation can be profitable in the future. However, water productivity must be improved by enhancing farmers- income through farming investment, improving assets access, and the allocation of activities and crops which bring high returns to water; this could allow the farmers to pay more for water and allow cost recovery for water systems.
Abstract: We investigate the planar quasi-septic non-analytic systems which have a center-focus equilibrium at the origin and whose angular speed is constant. The system could be changed into an analytic system by two transformations, with the help of computer algebra system MATHEMATICA, the conditions of uniform isochronous center are obtained.
Abstract: Recently, wireless sensor networks have been paid
more interest, are widely used in a lot of commercial and military
applications, and may be deployed in critical scenarios (e.g. when a
malfunctioning network results in danger to human life or great
financial loss). Such networks must be protected against human
intrusion by using the secret keys to encrypt the exchange messages
between communicating nodes. Both the symmetric and asymmetric
methods have their own drawbacks for use in key management. Thus,
we avoid the weakness of these two cryptosystems and make use of
their advantages to establish a secure environment by developing the
new method for encryption depending on the idea of code
conversion. The code conversion-s equations are used as the key for
designing the proposed system based on the basics of logic gate-s
principals. Using our security architecture, we show how to reduce
significant attacks on wireless sensor networks.
Abstract: The investigating and assessing the effects of
relaxation training on the levels of state anxiety concerning first year
female nursing students at their initial experience in clinical setting.
This research is a quasi experimental study that was carried out in
nursing and midwifery faculty of Tehran university of medical
sciences .The sample of research consists 60 first term female
nursing students were selected through convenience and random
sampling. 30 of them were the experimental group and 30 of them
were in control group. The Instruments of data-collection has been a
questionnaire which consists of 3 parts. The first part includes 10
questions about demographic characteristics .the second part includes
20 question about anxiety (test 'Spielberg' ). The 3rd part includes
physiological indicators of anxiety (BP, P, R, body temperature). The
statistical tests included t-test and and fisher test, Data were
analyzed by SPSS software.
Abstract: In this paper, we start by first characterizing the most
important and distinguishing features of wavelet-based watermarking
schemes. We studied the overwhelming amount of algorithms
proposed in the literature. Application scenario, copyright protection
is considered and building on the experience that was gained,
implemented two distinguishing watermarking schemes. Detailed
comparison and obtained results are presented and discussed. We
concluded that Joo-s [1] technique is more robust for standard noise
attacks than Dote-s [2] technique.
Abstract: carbonylation of methanol in homogenous phase is
one of the major routesfor production of acetic acid. Amongst group
VIII metal catalysts used in this process iridium has displayed the
best capabilities. To investigate effect of operating parameters like:
temperature, pressure, methyl iodide, methyl acetate, iridium,
ruthenium, and water concentrations on the reaction rate,
experimental design for this system based upon central composite
design (CCD) was utilized. Statistical rate equation developed by this
method contained individual, interactions and curvature effects of
parameters on the reaction rate. The model with p-value less than
0.0001 and R2 values greater than 0.9; confirmeda satisfactory fitness
of the experimental and theoretical studies. In other words, the
developed model and experimental data obtained passed all
diagnostic tests establishing this model as a statistically significant.
Abstract: In this work we adopt a combination of Laplace
transform and the decomposition method to find numerical solutions
of a system of multi-pantograph equations. The procedure leads to a
rapid convergence of the series to the exact solution after computing a
few terms. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated in some
examples by obtaining the exact solution and in others by computing
the absolute error which decreases as the number of terms of the series
increases.
Abstract: Cyber physical system (CPS) for target tracking, military surveillance, human health monitoring, and vehicle detection all require maximizing the utility and saving the energy. Sensor selection is one of the most important parts of CPS. Sensor selection problem (SSP) is concentrating to balance the tradeoff between the number of sensors which we used and the utility which we will get. In this paper, we propose a performance constrained slide windows (PCSW) based algorithm for SSP in CPS. we present results of extensive simulations that we have carried out to test and validate the PCSW algorithms when we track a target, Experiment shows that the PCSW based algorithm improved the performance including selecting time and communication times for selecting.
Abstract: Music has a great effect on human body and mind; it
can have a positive effect on hormone system. Objective of this study
is to analysis the effect of music (carnatic, hard rock and jazz) on
brain activity during mental work load using electroencephalography
(EEG). Eight healthy subjects without special musical education
participated in the study. EEG signals were acquired at frontal (Fz),
parietal (Pz) and central (Cz) lobes of brain while listening to music
at three experimental condition (rest, music without mental task and
music with mental task). Spectral powers features were extracted at
alpha, theta and beta brain rhythms. While listening to jazz music, the
alpha and theta powers were significantly (p < 0.05) high for rest as
compared to music with and without mental task in Cz. While
listening to Carnatic music, the beta power was significantly (p <
0.05) high for with mental task as compared to rest and music
without mental task at Cz and Fz location. This finding corroborates
that attention based activities are enhanced while listening to jazz and
carnatic as compare to Hard rock during mental task.
Abstract: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has many
different important applications especially in pattern detection
such as face detection / recognition. Therefore, for real time
applications, the response time is required to be as small as
possible. In this paper, new implementation of PCA for fast
face detection is presented. Such new implementation is
designed based on cross correlation in the frequency domain
between the input image and eigenvectors (weights).
Simulation results show that the proposed implementation of
PCA is faster than conventional one.
Abstract: Multimedia information availability has increased
dramatically with the advent of video broadcasting on handheld
devices. But with this availability comes problems of maintaining the
security of information that is displayed in public. ISMA Encryption
and Authentication (ISMACryp) is one of the chosen technologies for
service protection in DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-
Handheld), the TV system for portable handheld devices. The
ISMACryp is encoded with H.264/AVC (advanced video coding),
while leaving all structural data as it is. Two modes of ISMACryp are
available; the CTR mode (Counter type) and CBC mode (Cipher
Block Chaining) mode. Both modes of ISMACryp are based on 128-
bit AES algorithm. AES algorithms are more complex and require
larger time for execution which is not suitable for real time
application like live TV. The proposed system aims to gain a deep
understanding of video data security on multimedia technologies and
to provide security for real time video applications using selective
encryption for H.264/AVC. Five level of security proposed in this
paper based on the content of NAL unit in Baseline Constrain profile
of H.264/AVC. The selective encryption in different levels provides
encryption of intra-prediction mode, residue data, inter-prediction
mode or motion vectors only. Experimental results shown in this
paper described that fifth level which is ISMACryp provide higher
level of security with more encryption time and the one level provide
lower level of security by encrypting only motion vectors with lower
execution time without compromise on compression and quality of
visual content. This encryption scheme with compression process
with low cost, and keeps the file format unchanged with some direct
operations supported. Simulation was being carried out in Matlab.
Abstract: The study was carried out to evaluated effect of S-gridling on fruit growth and quality of wax apple. The study was laid in Random completed block design with four replicated. Four treatment were applied as follows: S-girdling, fruit thinning plus bagging with 2,4-D sprayed, fruit thinning plus bagging and the control treatment. 2,4D was sprayed at the small bud and petal fall stage. Girdling was applied three week before flowering. The effect of all treatments on fruit growth was measured weekly. Number of flower, fruit set, fruit drop, fruit crack, and fruit quality were recorded. The result indicated that S-girdling, 2,4D application produced the lowest bud drop, fruit drop compared to untreated control. S-girdling improved faster fruit growth producing the best final fruit length and diameter compared to untreated control. S-girdling also markedly enhanced fruit set, fruit weight, and total soluble solid, reduced fruit crack, titratable acidity. On the other hand, it was noticed that with 2,4-D application also increased the fruit growth rate, improved physiological and biochemical characters of fruit than control treatment. It was concluded that S-girdling was recommended as the industry norm to increase fruit set, fruit quality in wax apple. 2,4D application had a distinctive and significant effect on most of the fruit quality characteristics assessed.
Abstract: This paper addresses one important aspect of
combustion system analysis, the spray evaporation and
dispersion modeling. In this study we assume an empty
cylinder which is as a simulator for a ramjet engine and the
cylinder has been studied by cold flow. Four nozzles have the
duties of injection which are located in the entrance of
cylinder. The air flow comes into the cylinder from one side
and injection operation will be done. By changing injection
velocity and entrance air flow velocity, we have studied
droplet sizing and efficient mass fraction of fuel vapor near
and at the exit area. We named the mass of fuel vapor inside
the flammability limit as the efficient mass fraction. Further,
we decreased the initial temperature of fuel droplets and we
have repeated the investigating again. To fulfill the calculation
we used a modified version of KIVA-3V.